


Boxed Memories

by heaven_liqhts



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Parents, Big trigger warnings, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Emotional Abuse, Flashbacks, Gen, Malnourishment, Minor canon divergence, Moon deserves better, Moon is sad and disassociative, Neglect, Neglectful Parents, OOC, Physical Abuse, Platonic Relationships, Secretkeeper shouts at Moon for things that aren't her fault, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 14:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14263428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heaven_liqhts/pseuds/heaven_liqhts
Summary: Moonwatcher finds a box.-read tags for trigger warnings-





	Boxed Memories

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._  
  Her claws skittered across the tabletop. She couldn't just sit here, just wait for her to show up.  
_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._  
  She should have held this at her house. She should have kept her boys with her. She told them to leave even though she knew she'd need them because she would have liked to believe she didn't. That belief was false and now she was all alone.  
_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._  
  She stood up, searching for something to read, something to look at. Something to indicate who lived here, something something _something_. Anything. Anything to show that the dragon who lived here remembered. So she scoured the room, meticulously placing everything back in order when she was done. Framed drawings hung on the walls--of the rainforest, of a mighty NightWing Moonwatcher didn't know. Of the home's resident and another dragon, a RainWing. Laughing. Sitting. Hugging. So many pictures of the RainWing.  
  So she looked harder. And she checked under beds and behind shelves and in cupboards. And she found what she needed. What she wanted.  
  The box was about four feet long, and half as wide. Standing at about a foot tall, it was long enough to hold several scrolls, or perhaps a bow. It held neither.  
  And Moon opened it and Moon was thrown into the wake of memories--repressed memories, memories she never wanted to have in the first place and never, ever wanted back. But she took a breath and picked up the first item. A stuffy bear.

_The massive, buff NightWing handed her the bear- a small stuffed jaguar-and sh giggled as she took it. He caressed her head gently, and she shied away. New dragon, big dragon, strange dragon. Scary dragon. So fire bloomed in his eyes and he screamed in his head and in his mighty voice at her mother._  
_"Train my daughter to fear me, eh? I'll show you. I'll show you both." Then he hit Secretkeeper. Hit Moon. And she clung to the little jaguar and cried and cried and she was tossed across the room and her momma was all burnt up and bruised. And she cuddled Moon to sleep and the next day they went to a new part of the Rainforest, and then Momma left for almost two and a half weeks and Moon was starving._  
_And then she saw a jaguar. And she grabbed her little, stuffed toy and she followed it into the woods and she found a bunch of bananas and the jaguar disappeared. And then momma came back with a little more food and everything was okay again._  
_And she never ever saw the big mean dragon again, until today, in that drawing on the wall._

  She cringed at the memory, feeling her ribs twinge at the memory of hitting that wall, of being winded, of feeling broken. She looked at the photo on the wall, that massive dragon. That terrible dragon.  
  And then she looked back down at the box. A scroll.

  'The End.' _Moon turned her head at shuffling in the bushes, tiny ears perking up. "Momma! Momma, guess what, I wrote a story, Momma!"  
  "_ Thats _wonderful, sweetie," Secretkeeper glanced over her shoulder before emptying her satchel for the dragonet clutching the paper. Two bananas, a mango, some berries and a new piece of parchment, smudged with ash. "Here you go, baby. I have to go, but keep writing! Momma loves you." And she pressed a quick kiss to the top of Moon's head and she was gone. Words died in the little dragon's throat._  
_"I thought maybe you wanted to read it, Momma." She murmured, to herself and the bushes her mother had disappeared into. "But...but maybe next time you will. Maybe next time I'll write an even better one."_  
_And so the story went on an ever-growing mound of ashy parchment scraps in the hollow log she called home, and she sighed. And she didn't question how her mother hadn't even thought '_ I love you, Moonie' _at her, as she had so many times before. But then, she hadn't done that for a long, long time. So what would've changed?_

  And Moonwatcher took a deep breath, checked the clock. Another twenty five minutes before she'd be back. Next item. A little rolled-up scrap of parchment. She began to read.

_'And once there was a little dragonet named Starry. This little dragonet loved to laugh and play all day long with her Momma, who never ever left her. And they played hide-and-go-seek and tag in the Rainforest all day every day it was sunny. And when it rained, they sat inside their cabin and played house and wrote stories and read books together. Starry was just a normal dragon and she did NOT have wicked nasty powers that would get her in trouble, because she was a good little dragonet. And Starry and her Momma lived happily every after.'_  
_Moon was crying. Her Momma had read the story she just wrote-the first one she'd ever read. Moonwatcher was very proud of her stories because they always had happy endings and she thought maybe her Momma would like to see that happy endings were real and she didn't have to always hide because they could get a happy ending someday. But Momma's face got angrier and angrier as she read._  
_"So this is what you want? You want a safe little house, no powers, a momma who can always be there? You ungrateful little brat; I bend over backwards for you, and you just...you just...I SAVED you, Moonwatcher, and this is what I get? If you want to be like Starry so much, go find a new momma, then. Clearly, I'm not good enough" Momma had never ever shouted at her before, and she leaped into the bushes, leaving Moon alone with tears flowing down her face. And she looked at her pile of stories and she inhaled real deep and she blew at them as if she could push them all away like the winds that whipped the forest during Spring storms. And she breathed fire at them. And they caught alight and she was so surprised she took several steps back, falling flat on her butt. And she just watched the fire burn. All her stories were gone, except for the one she really wanted to go away, the one that made her Momma so angry she cried. Moon didn't know what she'd done. So she laid down with her last story and wept herself into oblivion._

Last object. Moon picked up the small, round white stone. She gazed at it, into it, as she lost herself in her memories. _  
  
"Momma? Momma?" The rustling was all around her, and she backed into her tree, tail between her legs. Then, from the bushes, like a savior in black burst her mother.   She scooped Moon into her arms and held her close against the mighty winds and rain._  
 _"Baby, are you okay? Moony?"_  
 _"Yes, Momma, I'm okay. Just a little cold."_  
 _Secretkeeper smiled a little, despite herself. "You're shivering like a SandWing in the Arctic Sea, darling. I'd say 'a little cold' is a bit of an understatement."_  
 _"Okay, maybe a lot cold, then. But before we go anywhere I need to get something!" She jumped out of her mother's arms, seizing a small object from her log before hurrying back to the warm enclosure of her mother's wings._  
 _And her Momma took her far far away until they found a place where the rain couldn't hit them. It was a little drafty and very roomy but Moon was glad to be out of the cold and wet. Her mother looked antsy, as she often did before she had to leave Moon._  
 _"Momma?" Her mother looked at her, smiled a bit._  
 _"Yes, Moony?"_  
 _"I found this rock and I, um, want you to have it. Because its round and white and I know you said I was special because I was out here, under the moonlight, and I wanted you to have this because it looks like the moons. Because, uh, if you don't have powers that means you don't see the moons enough, I think? And I want you to always have it with you. Because. Everyone needs a little more moonlight."_  
 _Her mother's eyes were tearing up and Moon cringed, afraid she'd done something wrong. But the thoughts racing from one mind to another were happy, if disoriented. Then she was swept up in her smoky-smelling Momma's massive wings._  
 _"You're all the light I'll ever need, Moonbeam." and she hugged her daughter tighter and they were quiet, for a stretch._  
 _"Momma?"_  
 _"Yes, Moony?"_  
 _"Will I be as big and strong as you someday?"_  
 _She craned her head back to smile tearily down at her tiny daughter. "You certainly will, Moonbeam. Big and strong and even greater than I ever will be."_  
 _"Aww, Momma, nobody will ever be as great as you!"_  
 _But her mother just stayed quiet, and eventually, Moon drifted off to sleep to two sets of quiet thoughts and a thrumming heartbeat. And she woke up alone. But the rock was gone, so she knew her Momma had a little bit of the Moons with her and that made things just a little bit better.  
_  
  Moonwatcher was crying. Everything was back in its place in the box as she stumbled away, very much out of it and very much confused. Memories and feelings flooded her from every which way, and then. And then. A pang of fear and love from someone else's mind.  
_I cannot meet my mother again._  
  And so Moon ran and she ignored the confused, worried, disheartened thoughts from behind her. All she wanted was to be home. All she wanted was her boys and some time to mull all this over.  
  All she really wanted was a reset button on her life from day one, but that was the one thing she couldn't have. So she settled for second best.  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I ain't sorry, but this OOC sort of Moon will probably be present in my future works.  
> Also, this wasn't beta-read or even proofed by me so maybe I'll update it later with some fixes but this is really rough, sorry :/


End file.
